The goal of the conference was to focus on the role of individual life history as part of the adaptation of the species in the dynamics of the evolutionary process. Taking a perspective that had thus far been neglected in studies of human evolution, the conference sought to delineate the patterns of variations in growth, development, and aging in humans and in the nonhuman primates, in an effort to track potential change in populations through time. The theoretical framework combined comparative, functional, and evolutionary approaches. A diverse group of scholars addressed the topic from their expertise in fossil material, genetics, human ecology and adaptation, ecological and social organization of humans and nonhumans, functional morphology, human growth and development, aging, and evolutionary theory.